VIQ Solutions Inc. Reports Full Year 2017 Results

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VIQ Solutions Inc. (“VIQ” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture:VQS), a global expert providing a cybersecurity protected technology and service platform for digital evidence capture and content management, today reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2017. Results are reported in US dollars and are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”).

Consolidated annual revenue was approximately $11.7M representing 36% growth over the previous year while the Company accelerated its transition from a predominantly product-based to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”).

“Fiscal 2017 was a transformational year for VIQ,” stated Sebastien Paré, VIQ President and CEO, and “The Company successfully established a strong foundation for our transition to SaaS and artificial intelligence-based revenue from its new products. We also protected an exceptional earnings growth trajectory for recurring revenue and maintained our gross margins while scaling up the transition.”

“Investments in research and development, sales, cloud infrastructure and transcription services increased to maintain our 2018 growth trajectory. Recurring revenue grew by 23% over 2016 as the Company’s cloud platform continued to gain traction. VIQ ended 2017 with a cash balance of approximately $4.1M and no debt.”

“VIQ’s highest growth opportunity is in artificial intelligence and digital content analytics of customer content securely captured in the rapidly expanding SaaS and government secured cloud markets,” continued Mr. Paré.

“The size, quality and high profile of our 2018 sales pipeline, new 2017 customer wins and paid pilots currently underway, reinforces our belief that VIQ’S growth lies in extending digital content capture. This includes management and mining of highly secure content by new AI-based services through voice-to-text, Natural Language Processing and video analytics.“

Conference call to Discuss Full Year 2017 Results

The Company will hold a conference call to discuss the 2017 full year results. The call will consist of a brief update by VIQ President and CEO Sebastien Paré, followed by a question period. Interested parties can participate in the conference call.

The call will be held on Thursday, April 26th at 16:00 ET. Participants may join the conference call by dialing 1-855-223-2840 within North America or 1-647-788-4945 outside of North America five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time. The conference ID is 7779134 “VIQ Solutions Fourth Quarter Earnings Call.”

A telephone replay will be available for two business days beginning on April 26th. To access the replay, please dial in 1- 855-859-2056 and follow the prompt with the passcode number 7779134.

2017 Business Highlights

2017 was a year of significant growth for VIQ Solutions, the start of an incremental transition to Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) and technological innovation:

Revenues increased 36% to $11.7 million from $8.6 million in 2016.

Year over year, software revenue increased by 52% and services by 29%.

Recurring revenue reached $9.1M in 2017, up 23% from previous year due to a combination of new wins, organic growth, transition to Software-as-a-Service “SaaS” and convergence of integrated technology and transcription services in Australia.

Launched CyberCrypt as an ultra-secure extension in cloud computing, with advanced cybersecurity and content protection for the world's most security conscious organizations.

CyberCrypt is being deployed in two large-scale paid pilots with international agencies, which are anticipated to convert to full SaaS deployments in 2018. These paid pilots have not been announced at the request of our customers.

Completed brokered and non-brokered, private placement of $3.9M to accelerate the commercialization of aiAssistTM, the artificial intelligence extension of VIQ’s existing platform.

By year end, the contracted backlog of aiAssistTM orders exceeded $400,000. These orders have not been announced. VIQ expects to release the size of this contracted backlog in the second half of 2018.

Signed two strategic OEM agreements with Nuance: one in Australia for Dragon Speech Recognition aimed at medical and legal markets, and the second in North America for NTE, Nuance’s multi-speaker speech recognition.

Made several announcements throughout the year including:

• Several new wins with hospitals and medical agencies around the world for ultra-secure digital evidence capture and content management, leading edge VoIP dictation, and secure cloud-based transcription workflows.

• First customer on the new SaaS platform, the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, on a monthly subscription basis.

• Several wins in Australia for integrated technology and transcription services.

• Significant EMEA growth with multiple new wins in Europe, Middle-East and Africa.

• New wins with leading US transcription providers for complete digital statement capture, storage, and transcription workflows that emphasize client security and privacy.

Expanded our North American sales team to focus on growing sales of aiAssistTM.

Financial Results for 2017

The Audited Consolidated Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2017 will be posted on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The financial information included in this news release is qualified in its entirety and should be read together with the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017, including the notes thereto.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward looking statements or forward looking information under applicable securities legislation. Such forward looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward looking statements or information typically contain statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward looking statements or information in this news release include, but are not limited to, management’s targets for the Company’s growth in 2017, as well as the size, scope, and timing of the implementation of projects currently in the pilot phase.

Forward looking statements or information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such statements and information, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although VIQ believes that the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking statements because VIQ can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be identified in this news release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Company’s recent initiatives, and that sales and prospects may provide incremental value for shareholders. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which have been used.

Forward looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by VIQ and described in the forward looking statements or information. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward looking statements or information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all possible risks and uncertainties.

About VIQ Solutions Inc.

VIQ is the leading technology and service platform provider for digital evidence capture and content management. Our secure modular software allows customers to onboard the VIQ platform at any stage of their organization's digitization, from the digital capture of video and audio to online collaboration, mobility, data analytics and integration with sensors, facial recognition, speech recognition and case management or patient record systems. VIQ's technology leads the industry in security, meeting the highest international standards for digital/cyber security and privacy, including military and medical regulations.

Our solutions are used in over 20 countries with tens of thousands of users in more than 200 government and private agencies including law enforcement, immigration, medical, legal, insurance, courts, transportation and transcription service providers. VIQ also provides end-to-end transcription services to several large government agencies through our Australia-based reporting and transcription partners. VIQ operates worldwide with partners like security integrators, audio-video specialists, and hardware and data storage suppliers. For more information about VIQ, please visit www.viqsolutions.com.

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